Barack Obama Ranked 12th Best U.S. President Ever in Major Survey of Historians

Barack Obama has been whisked to a very good table at the club of former presidents, according to a C-SPAN survey of 91 presidential historians published on Friday. Obama’s 12th-place ranking only a month after leaving office is the best for any president since Ronald Reagan, who ranks ninth in the new survey. The list updates previous C-SPAN surveys compiled in 2009 and 2000.

Historians gave Obama high marks for pursuing equality, managing the economy, public persuasion and “moral authority.” On the other hand, he was judged to have been below-average in handling international relations. Overall, he placed ahead of such generally well-regarded chief executives as James Monroe and James Polk.

History’s view of the best and worst presidents was unchanged since 2009. The top spot once again went to Abraham Lincoln — the quintessential self-made man who saved the Union, emancipated the slaves, and launched the Transcontinental Railroad. He ranked no lower than fourth in all ten of the criteria by which presidents were judged. He finished first in crisis leadership, administrative skill, vision setting, and pursuit of equal justice; second in economic management, moral authority, and “performance within the context of the times”; third in public persuasion and international relations; and fourth in working with Congress.

Meanwhile, other presidents are falling in history’s estimation. Andrew Jackson, the 19th century populist whose portrait occupies a place of honor next to Donald Trump’s desk in the Oval Office, plunged five places since the 2009 survey, from 13th to 18th. Woodrow Wilson, who ranked sixth in the 2000 survey, dropped to 11th, as the post-World War I map of the Middle East that Wilson helped to draw crumbled into anarchy, and historians placed new emphasis on his atrocious civil rights record.

Last edited by millionairetobe71; 02-17-2017 at 09:10 PM.

"We are ready for an unforeseen event that
may or may not occur." --Al Gore, VP :swear:

There’s an inquiry into his ownership of the Trump International Hotel just down Pennsylvania Avenue, a call to discipline his counselor Kellyanne Conway for giving his daughter Ivanka’s brand a “free commercial” on Fox News, and an investigation underway about whether or not there’s enough security in place at Mar-a-Lago after the president decided to review national-security documents on a terrace at the Palm Beach resort last weekend in plain view of prying dinner guests. According to ABC News, Trump received a big, fat gift from China this week in the form of a 10-year trademark on his name for construction.

"We are ready for an unforeseen event that
may or may not occur." --Al Gore, VP :swear:

There have been missteps aplenty: Flynn, Putin, the immigration exec order, junking the two-state solution, the Ivanka/Nordstrom’s hoohah, Bannon and the alt-right. It’s a target rich environment. As much as Trump wants to blame lefty politics, questions of competence and integrity keep flaring up, and Republicans are edging away from him.

Now other mainstream conservatives are picking fights. John McCain is loudly opposing the confirmation of Rep. Mickey Mulvaney as Budget Director. Bob Corker wants an investigation into the Russian Connection. House right-wingers are piling on Flynn and pushing for repeal of Obamacare now.

It’s becoming a pattern. Some of it is the genuine fear of Trump as unbalanced. Some of it is the knowledge that Trump is an unreliable ally for the slash Social Security, Medicare and Obamacare, undo gay rights, no federal infrastructure Movement Conservatives. They were never comfortable with him, and his departure would cause no tears.

The organized Right wants a President Pence.

He’s calmer, less vulnerable to political challenge, linked to corporate and Wall Street interests, a social reactionary and ideologically in tune with House Republican/Freedom Caucus colleagues.

The mechanics of the Pence ascendancy are unclear. There are two choices, resignation or impeachment. The preferred departure is a resignation spurred by scandal and setback, but rooted in Trump’s clear unhappiness with the day to day grind of being President. But if necessary, impeachment is not impossible. Keep an eye on the Russian investigations. If there are revelations reaching to Trump, things will proceed.

"We are ready for an unforeseen event that
may or may not occur." --Al Gore, VP :swear: